Maine Diner in Wells, York County, United States | Restaurant

Our first customer, in 1983, came by accident. Literally. He drove his car into a pole near our parking lot! It seems that he had mistaken us for a certain bar, and apparently zigged when he should have zagged. He stayed, and had a meal with his coffee.

That same day, we had 41 more guests.. Total receipts were $42. The next day, 100 guests. We could never have imagined that by 1999 we would have served over 2 million more guests. And on a typical summer day, twelve to fifteen hundred satisfied guests pass through our doors.

But, the story of the Maine Diner really starts long before 1983--some thirty years before, in fact. The diner was started by Socrates "Louie" Toton, who had owned a diner in Boston and started the Maine Diner as his "retirement" diner. Being an avid gardener, he closed the diner in the summer so that he could spend full-time on the big patch of fertile land in back.

While a lot has changed since Louie was here, we still maintain the garden, and during the summer we serve produce whose freshness is measured in minutes. And now we're a year-round Restaurant with customers enjoying home cooking, and the best available ingredients twelve months a year.

We now have a staff of over sixty year-round employees and in May of 1997, we opened our gift shop, Remember the Maine.

And while our seating capacity has grown to ninety, our philosophy has stayed the same. Treat each customer like a guest in our own home offering the best home-cooked food, in a clean and friendly atmosphere. That is a promise we will never outgrow.